That's not my name
by StarFixation
Summary: Zuko is asked an odd question right after he joins the Gaang. Does he know the avatar's name?
1. Chapter 1

**_I own nothing, not even the plot because I bet the creators were going to do something like this, but scrapped it._**

**_Enjoy_**Zuko was not feeling good.

* * *

Okay so he was feeling good in a way, he had just finally defected to the side of good and was a part of the Avatar's posse (or Gaang or Team Avatar as the one water tribe boy had called it many times). However, even though he had just joined them he knew that no one really trusted him.

The fact that Katara had just walked into his room to tell him that if he ever did anything to hurt the avatar proved it. Apparently she expected him to sneak off in the night to kill the Avatar in hopes of getting his honor back.

What did it matter that he was finally on their side if none of them trusted him? Not at all, that's how much!

Zuko collapsed face down on his bed. He needed to just stop and think. If he wasn't trusted he would just have to get on their good side. But wouldn't that be what they would expect him to do if he were just trying to get on their side so he could kidnap the avatar easily?

"Gah!" he shouted into his makeshift pillow.

It was all too confusing. No matter what he did there would still be some doubt if he was really on their side. His uncle would tell him just to be himself, but who was Zuko? Was he the one who chased down the avatar or was he some person he wasn't completely aware of yet?

The latter seemed most likely.

Zuko sensed someone at the door, but instead of reacting as he had earlier that day he just used his words.

"I know you're there," he rasped.

After a moment he heard that familiar chuckling and sat up. It was the avatar.

"Um hi," the avatar murmured, rubbing his head. "Well I just wanted to welcome you…"

"Thanks," Zuko bowed, but when his visitor still stood there looking like he had a question he sighed. "Is there something else?"

The avatar flinched; Zuko must have used his forceful voice. He made a note to himself to try to not do that anymore.

"Well, I was just wondering…" the avatar stammered. "I mean…"

Zuko could feel his eye twitching. It took every ounce of willpower in his body to not shout for him to get on with it.

"I wanted to know why you don't say my name," the avatar finally said.

Zuko's jaw dropped. When he thought about it he had never called the avatar by name. His uncle had said it a few times, but he hadn't really paid attention since he didn't care.

"Do you want the truth?" Zuko asked.

"Only if you think you should tell me," the avatar replied, not exactly saying what he wanted. Zuko wondered where a prepubescent boy would learn how to be so passive aggressive. Air nomads, he had read, were just passive to a T. Maybe he had learned from Katara.

Zuko winced, he realized that out of the avatar's group the only one he knew by name was Katara, and that was only because of all the times they ended up together back when he had been chasing them.

"So why?" the avatar asked, snapping Zuko out of his thoughts.

"Does your girlfriend know you're here?" he replied to change the subject, careful not to call her by name. The avatar turned redder than a bloodstained fire nation soldier's uniform.

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" he exclaimed.

"By the way she was acting she's either your girlfriend or wants to be your mother," Zuko replied, glad that he had gotten the avatar's mind off subject. The truth would make the avatar and his group trust him even less than they did already.

"What, did Katara say something to you?" he gasped. The avatar got very close to Zuko, "did she say she was my girlfriend?"

Zuko blanched; off subject about his name he was going a mile a minute about Katara.

"No, Katara said nothing about being your girlfriend," he sighed. "It's just the way she acts around you."

"See, you say Katara's name!" the avatar exclaimed suddenly. All his yammering was a trap, "Why don't you say mine?"

Zuko saw no way out so he sat down on his bed.

"Have you ever hunted before?" He asked.

"Nope, I'm a vegetarian." The avatar replied.

"Well, when you're hunting you don't call your quarry by name, even if you know it." Zuko began. "Calling someone of thing by name humanizes them,

"And decreases the chance of being able to finish the job since now hat your quarry is humanized you feel a tug of empathy towards them," Zuko stopped to see if the avatar was getting it.

"If for even a second I thought of you as a person I would have hesitated to capture you and I wouldn't be able to get my honor back, so that's why I never have referred to you by name."

Zuko exhaled, and looked to the avatar to see how he was taking the information. The boy seemed to be thinking about it logically, maybe there wouldn't be a lowering of the "trust Zuko" scale after all.

"Okay, that explains then, but how about now?" he asked. "Can you say my name now?"

Zuko frowned, "No."

"Why not? We're not enemies anymore!" the avatar shouted.

It amazed Zuko how much the avatar shouted and people seemed to not hear him. Maybe it was an airbender thing, but that was unlikely since the air nomads were so pacifistic. Shouting indicated an argument or at least ill will. But he was a kid after all...

"It's not that," Zuko paused. "I just don't know your name."

"Really?"

"Really."

The avatar stood and walked out of the room. Zuko cursed himself, thinking that he had blown it yet again when the avatar sauntered back in.

"Oh, hello there," he beamed.

"What are you doing?" Zuko asked.

"Well, I thought we should start over," the avatar responded. "That way you learn my name and you get a clean slate."

Zuko sighed, but decide to play along nonetheless.

"Hi," he said trying to offer up a smile. He could not since it wasn't something he did regularly

"Well what are you doing here?" the avatar asked, plopping down on the bed next to him.

Zuko went with the truth, "I was searching for the avatar so I could teach him to firebend."

"Well I'm the avatar umm... what was your name again?" the avatar said holding out his hand.

"Zuko, and you are?" the prince said, taking the hand

"Aang." The airbender beamed. "My name is Aang."

* * *

**_Okay then. this came from something i noticed while i was watching the show the other day. did Zuko ever really call Aang by name before he joined their group? _**

**_REVIEW!_**


	2. Name game

**_Well from the reviews I decided to expand this into a two-shot. Hopefully this is as good as the first part was. _**

**_I own nothing, but i have been forced to play a similar name game as Zuko a few times._**

* * *

**Name Game**

It was the middle of the night, Zuko assumed, when the avatar- er Aang- came into his room again. Zuko had been dreaming about koala-sheep for some reason when one of them started talking, more like shouting, in Aang's voice.

"Zuko, wake up!" it shouted.

"Go away stupid sheep," he growled, igniting his fists to show that he meant business. The koala-sheep didn't seem to get the message.

"Zuko, c'mon you need to get up!" it shouted, nudging him with its nose.

"I SAID GO AWAY!" he shouted inches away from the creature's face. The koala-sheep looked sad.

"But Zuko, I'm not a sheep!" it shouted in his ear. Of course it was then that Zuko finally woke up for real to see Aang sitting at the foot of his bed. For a moment he forgot where he was and almost burnt his new comrade to a crisp, but then Katara's word echoed in his mind.

"If you do anything to hurt him, I will end you"

Zuko frowned, at least more deeply than before, and set his glare on stun even though he knew Aang was immune to the power of his emo boy glares.

"Aang, what are you doing here?" Zuko asked slowly. "It's not even sunrise yet."

"Well I was thinking…" the boy began.

"I'm fine with that so long as your thinking doesn't wake me," Zuko interrupted.

Aang continued as if Zuko's negativity couldn't take away his sunshine, which it couldn't.

"I thought that if you didn't know my name then you don't know everyone else so you should try to reintroduced yourself to them!"

"Right now?"

"Right now!"

Zuko took a deep breath and reminded himself that Aang was still a little kid as such he probably had endless pools of energy and didn't understand that everyone else did not run that way as well.

"I'll learn everyone else's names later," he grunted, pulling his lone blanket over his head.

"But Zuko!"

The fire prince cut him off, "First fire bending lesson: FIREBENDERS WAKE UP AT SUNRISE!"

With that he kicked Aang off his bed and tried to go back to sleep.

* * *

At sunrise five or so hours later Zuko half expected to find Aang shouting in his ear to wake up so he could learn everyone's names. Zuko saw no point in consciously redoing what he had the night before with Aang with everyone. He only had done it then because it was a spontaneous thing and he thought it would never have to happen again. Didn't Aang realize that he could learn names just by listening to the group in conversation settings?

Of course not.

When Zuko swung his legs over the bed he almost stepped on a sleeping Aang. Apparently the boy had thought it would get in his good graces if he were there and ready when the training began. Zuko smirked. If he was going to get Aang ready to fight his father then he'd have to be a harder teacher than his tutors had been. It had annoyed him when he was young, but since he was in the position to be a sadistic teacher he couldn't help but enjoy it.

Zuko took a deep breath, "WAKE UP!"

Aang yelped and jumped almost five feet into the air. He, of course, landed gracefully on his feet though and stood in attention.

"Yes sifu?" Aang exclaimed.

Zuko's eye twitched. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

A few hours later the others had woken up to find Zuko and Aang doing breathing exercises. Many times had he tried to lodge a complaint or at least get Zuko to show him some fire bending. Even though they had been nemeses for the latter part of the year Aang and Zuko actually hadn't fought that much. The times that they did fight, Zuko noted, Aang had been preoccupied with surviving than studying the art.

"Wow, I thought fire bending lessons would be a lot more intense," Katara's brother chuckled with the blind girl…her name started with a T, right?

"Yeah me too," Aang sighed.

"No talking," Zuko ordered sharply. "Focus on your breathing!"

Instead of replying annoyingly "yes sifu Hotman" as he had earlier that morning Aang grinned.

"Hey guys, why don't you come over and learn to _breathe_ with me?" he said in a sing song voice.

"Nope, I'm can breathe just fine," Katara's brother scoffed, obviously intrigued by this friend.

"Come on _man_," Aang said purposefully placing emphasis on the substitute for Katara's brother's name.

Zuko did not like where it was going.

The blind girl grinned back. Zuko made a note to ask how she always seemed to _see_ while she was blind. Was she like the Fox-Bats with echolocation or something along those lines?

"Yeah," blind girl said. "I think we should breathe with Twinkle toes and Sparky."

"Sparky?" Zuko intoned, glancing at Aang who just shrugged.

Blind girl gave out nicknames? Maybe that meant he could just call her, and the others he didn't know by some random nickname!

"Zuko doesn't know any of our names," Aang said suddenly, dashing his plans of totally faking it. "And his pride won't let him ask sooooo…"

Katara's brother interrupted, "Wait you spent all that time hunting us down and didn't know our names?"

Zuko put his hands up, "I know Katara and Aang…"

Katara scowled. It was most likely because he had learned her name quote unquote first of the members of the "Gaang." It didn't help matters that it was when they had been trapped in the crystal prisons and were actually bonding. For a moment Zuko wondered what would have happened if he had just gone with the avatar, slip up again, Aang when they had been rescued. It was likely that he would have had more time to teach the airbender how to firebend with some help too…

"But why don't you know _us_?" Katara's brother demanded, puling Zuko out of his musings.

"He said that it was some kind of hunting thing," Aang hastily explained.

"Oh, well that makes sense," Katara's brother nodded. "I'm So-"

Katara interrupted, "Wait, I say we make Zuko work for it."

Zuko's blood ran cold, just because Katara didn't like him didn't mean that she had to make it so difficult to learn two names!

"What do you mean, Katara?" Aang asked.

"They give him one clue each to their names and he has to guess." Katara said simply.

Zuko nodded, that was reasonable and it didn't hurt that he already had a clue from each of them already. Once more the blind girl's name started with a T and Katara's brother's name started with So. It was going to be easy!

"My name is really cool," blind girl said.

"And my name is two syllables," Katara's brother smirked.

Zuko's jaw dropped. "What kind of clues are those?"

"Your clues," Katara smiled. "Now get to guessing."

* * *

It had been an hour when Zuko realized that he was never going to figure it out. The only way to call off the challenge was to, and he really did not want to do it unless it was completely necessary, humble himself before Katara. She was doing something with a boiling pot of water when he found her.

"Katara, I don't think I can figure it out," he frowned.

"Figure what out, Zuko?" Katara asked, not looking up at him.

"Names, I don't know them still," he sighed.

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Maybe get Aang to call off the challenge?" He muttered. "He does listen to you."

Katara sprang up and was bright red.

"What do you mean by that?" she demanded. Zuko rolled his eyes in disbelief at how blind the two were. It was obvious to everyone but them that they had romantic feelings for each other. Instead of pushing it further he just decided to go the direct route. The blind girl was closest so he went to her first.

"What do you need Sparky?" she scoffed while he was ten feet away.

"How do you do that?" he asked instead. "Know that I'm here."

Blind girl turned to face him and pointed her finger in his face.

"You and I both know that's not what you really want!" she exclaimed.

Zuko couldn't help but feel amazed that she was able to figure out what he really was there for.

"The clue you gave about your name wasn't helpful," Zuko said keeping it short.

The blind girl rubbed her chin in deep thought, and then a look of inspiration dawned on her face.

"Tell me how I can see you and you have to surprise me too," she smirked. "And I'll tell you my name."

The blind girl stepped back a few feet, span herself around in circles, and then covered her eyes for good measure.

"How do I…"

"You can firebend if you want, or get those swords of yours if you like" Blind girl interrupted.

Zuko wished that he had his swords. He was still a bit wary of fire bending around blind girl since he had burned her feet…

"Just get to it already Sparky."

So Zuko did. He assumed that her "sight" had to do with her hearing so if he could be as silent as possible he could get close and… well whatever he came up with.

Moving silently was of no problem for him so with ease he slipped closer and was about to unleash a small fireball when a wall of earth rose in front of him.

He yelped. Her hearing was not the way she saw things so it didn't matter what he did. Zuko leapt over the wall and while he was still in the air he saw the slightest twinge of confusion on the girl's face.

It came to him.

Instead of landing on the wall Zuko focused his fire to act as propulsion and landed inches away from the blind girl's face.

"You feel vibrations through the earth," he whispered in her ear.

Even though her eyes always looked blank Zuko swore he saw a flash of surprise. Blind girl thrusted out her hand and took Zuko's.

"My name is Toph Bei Fong, and you're smarter than Snoozles thinks,"

* * *

Zuko stalked off into what he knew to be Katara's brother's room. The boy seemed to be building something, but Zuko wasn't exactly sure what of…

"You figure out my name yet?" he chuckled, still wholly focused on the contraption.

"No, but I was wondering if you could just give me a challenge to complete instead," Zuko explained.

Like Toph the boy was excited. He forced Zuko to cover his eyes and led the prince outside.

"All you have to do is catch me,"

And with that Zuko opened his eyes to see that the water tribesman had disappeared. He sighed inwardly. A game of tracking was just salt to his already wounded pride since he had spent years hunting one person and never actually caught him.

A flash of blue appeared out of the corner of his eye and Zuko knew where to go. He couldn't believe that someone who claimed to be so smart wouldn't realize how much the blue of his tunic stood out against the green on the forest.

Of course then he saw a flash of brown out of the other corner of his eye.

Zuko looked once more at where he had seen the blue and realized that it was the lemur flying through the trees with Katara's brother's tunic wrapped around it. Zuko smiled and ran off to pursue his target. Zuko decided against being quiet and just pounced. He landed gracefully right in front of Katara's brother and tapped him on the shoulder.

"I win," he said simply.

"Aw man!" Katara's brother exclaimed. "I thought Momo would totally throw you off!"

Momo was the lemur's name?

"It didn't," Zuko lied. "So now you tell me your name."

The boy nodded, "I'm Sokka,"

Zuko restrained himself from jumping for joy since that was something a prince never did, but instead thanked Sokka and made his way to wherever Katara was.

* * *

He had found the water bender with Aang doing some training.

"I learned their names," he called out to them.

"Yeah, I knew you could do it!" Aang exclaimed, floating in the air.

Katara briefly nodded, a sign of acknowledgement, and Zuko had a feeling that he was on the road to earn their trust.


End file.
